262 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



rude, and of course the studious individuals were annoyed 

 by their more restless companions. By degrees the entire 

 building, except the wing, was relinquished in favor of the 

 public purposes of the institution, and the attempt at sus 

 taining a family condition was tacitly relinquished. 



The decisive and sanguinary battle of 1814 on Lake 

 Champlain between the American commander McDonough, 

 and the British commodore Downie, fatal to the latter, 

 followed the not less bloody and equally decisive conflict 

 of 1813, on Lake Erie, between the commanders Perry 

 and Barclay. I should hardly allude to these events, had 

 not the same state of things placed us in peril upon the 

 seaboard, and caused us to hesitate, even in our quiet and 

 peaceful walks of science. British cruisers and squad 

 rons occupied Long Island Sound and Gardiner's Bay. 

 Our local commerce by water was suspended, and heavy 

 land-wagons laden with flour and other objects of traffic, and 

 drawn by teams of four and six horses, constantly traversed 

 the roads between New York and Boston. Some hesitating 

 scruples we had indeed felt while unpacking and arranging 

 our minerals, lest 'the chances of war should reach and 

 destroy them ; and we were hardly settled in our enjoyment 

 of these treasures, when increased strength was given to 

 our apprehensions by British depredations on Connecticut 

 River, and by the appearance of a British squadron at anchor 

 near Guilford, only sixteen miles from New Haven. Two 

 hours of favoring winds might place them at the mouth of 

 our harbor ; their spars were distinctly visibje from our 

 heights, and we could make out a ship of the line, a frigate, 

 and a sloop of war. 



The citizens of New Haven had, for some weeks, been 

 alarmed, and the bombardment of Stonington had shown 

 the probability that New Kaven might be assailed in the 

 same manner, although the want of depth of water in the 

 harbor might afford protection against large ships, but not 



